E, M, J & A au K'nada

Yes, we got up this morning to discover everything outside covered in white, and the weather forecast plans a few more centimeters for the next days! Check a few pictures and how happy Ms M was in the November 2007 folder of our gallery:

A few pictures from November, with Ms M’s friend Shira and drawing at home

Yesterday: 10 months waiting for baby #2 in China – already (or only). So here are the 10 bullets for today:

• We have no clue of how further long the wait will be. That is what we are sure of. One good adoption related news though, François arrived in France with his new family from Vietnam.
• Alex took his exam for citizenship yesterday, after months of checking his file and asking him for more details about all his trips for work, which means he might finally become a Canadian citizen this winter.
• Work is busy for him and me but we both like our jobs and when he travels now it’s not as complicated as before since I work at home. For that we are grateful.
• The calendar that was finally a little empty is slowly but surely getting packed again with Xmas parties at school and work, diners and church concerts. Tonight we are going to a movie and Alex went with Ms M yesterday at her school watch Ratatouille while I was at choir. She was so excited to go to school in pyjamas and eat popcorn. I am also planning to go with Ms M for a girls’ night (or afternoon) to see the Nutcracker in December. And starting to plan her birthday party just before Xmas.

• We still have to decide what we will do for Xmas with our friends: we might stay here but we could also go to Tremblant or else. Not settled yet.
• Ms M wants Santa’s chocolates, Santa’s stickers, Santa’s candies …thanks to marketing. She wants me to put the tree on already.
• She got punished 3 days ago because she got her name in the « yellow house » at school for not listening to the teacher and she disturbed the other kids during rest time.
• She doesn’t like to watch TV anymore these days, she just wants to draw, do crafts, cut paper, stick stickers, and play with mazes…positive effect of school.
• But there is also some negative aspects: one of the little girl in her class is bullying her. Anna pushed me, Anna kicked me, Anna pinched me… Seems the girl is doing that with some other kids too and that she is monitored by the school director. Her parents need to do something soon or I’ll go and manage the situation myself!
• Even though the weather is gloomy and the time of the year gets busy I love when the Holidays come. I am so grateful and happy to be able to spend Christmas with my loved ones, my dear husband, my lovely daughter and our « family » of friends since our families are on the other side of the ocean. We are so lucky to have good health, a nice roof on our head and always food in our plates. We can enjoy vacations and buy stuffs just for pleasure. So like every year I have also started my list of charities I want to donate before the end of the year. I try to give internationally and locally, for food and health, for the environment and especially for kids. Who are you giving back to?

I’ve just updated WordPress (the application used to manage this blog) in version 2.3.1, and I updated at the same time some plug-in used here.One advice, use Firefox or Safari to browse Internet, and if you must use Internet Explorer, use version 7 as version 6 and older can’t display some of the nifty stuff on this site and elswhere on the Net

3 years ago…

• We woke up in a hotel close to the Airport in Beijing after a very short night trying to redo our luggages for the 5th time.
• We took a plane to Changsha where we were supposed to have an other night of « rest » before meeting dumpling.
• We tried to get shots of the countryside before landing, just in case, one day our girl would want to see.
• We arrived in Changsha and Yulin got a call that the girls where there and that we had to rush.
• We got to the hotel, took a shower, all our papers, some toys and cheerios and in the bus we ran.
• We arrived at the Civil Affair Building at the same time a bus full of babies and parents crying was exiting.
• We took the elevator and arrived in a hall full of new parents speaking either english, french, spanish and something else.
• We got in the main room where some families just met their girls and were playing with them.
• We sat, stood, sat, stood, waited a few minutes that felt like hours.
• We saw 5 nannies coming in holding 5 little girls all dressed in red and 5 plastic bags with formula in it.
• We stopped: you were here!